Symphonic Dances

This winter our dancers left behind the warm South Florida weather and headed to Canada for two weekends of special performances, first in Vancouver, British Columbia, and then in Ottawa, Ontario. This marks the Company’s first international tour since 2011.

In Vancouver, hosted by Ballet BC, the Company presented a full program of masterworks by George Balanchine at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre with performances of Serenade, Symphony in Three Movements and Ballo della Regina. The performances, which received high praise, marked the Company’s debut in Vancouver.

This month our dancers left behind the warm South Florida weather and headed to Vancouver, British Columbia for a weekend of special performances. Hosted by Ballet BC, the Company presented a full program of masterworks by George Balanchine with performances of Serenade, Symphony in Three Movements and Ballo della Regina. The performances, which received rave reviews, marked the company’s debut in Vancouver.

Miami City Ballet dancers spend their days rehearsing in sunlit studios surrounded by swaying palm trees. But this winter, our dancers dig out their winter coats and boots as they embark on a tour of Canada with stops in Vancouver (Feb 19-21) and Ottawa (Mar 5-7).

Alexei Ratmansky is widely seen as one of the most original and important choreographers in ballet, an artist who is moving the genre forward while remaining deeply rooted in its classical origins. When Miami City Ballet commissioned him last season to create Symphonic Dances, set to a Rachmaninoff score of the same name, it was a milestone for the company.

After its one-night-only world premiere in Miami last season, Alexei Ratmansky’s Symphonic Dances returns to the stage during Program III: The Masters. Through interviews with the acclaimed choreographer, himself, and with two leading ladies from the ballet, we are breaking down this beautiful, yet complex masterwork in the following two part mini-series.

It was a rigorous but rewarding week at Miami City Ballet’s studios. The renowned choreographer from Russia Alexei Ratmansky visited the company to prepare his work Symphonic Dances for its return to the stage in Program III: The Masters. During his first visit to Miami last season, Ratmansky set out to create a new ballet — using the dancers as instruments that through various movements, formations, musical cues, and emotions would bring his artistic vision to life. After a three whirlwind weeks of artistic creation, Ratmansky gave us Symphonic Dances, which enjoyed a one-night only gala premiere at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami.

When Ratmansky returned this past week, his mission was entirely different. He was here to fine-tune and perfect his creation, shaping it into the masterpiece he envisioned. “This time, he is paying attention to the all of the smallest details,” said corps dancer Nathalia Arja who landed a leading role in the ballet. Principal Jeanette Delgado seconded Arja saying that our dancers are being “pushed out of their comfort-zones.” Ratmansky changed dancers’ roles, experimented with different casts, and persistently demanded more out of each unique dancer.

Principal Ballet Mistress Roma Sosenko and Ballet Mistress Joan Latham observed rehearsals and shared the following comments on their experience, “We love having Alexei back in Miami working on Symphonic Dances. He is so committed to the work and we love watching his quality of movement. He is so generous and giving and his coaching is as expansive as his heart.”

We are sure that our dancers’ hard work will pay off when the curtain rises on Symphonic Dances during Program III: The Masters, opening February 22 at Kravis Center, March 1 at Broward Center and March 8 at Adrienne Arsht Center.

Alexei Ratamansky’s Symphonic Dances is made possible in part by the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as part of its Knight Arts Challenge.

Following the one-night-only world premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s commission in March 2012, Symphonic Dances now enters our repertory in Program III. We talked to Alexei about his dramatic, face-paced work when he was here earlier this year creating the piece. Now he’s back to continue working with the Company on Symphonic Dances.

We are just days away from the World Premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s Symphonic Danceswith The Cleveland Orchestra in the pit! Jeanette Delgado has recently given us an insight on rehearsals for the new ballet, now check out these images to see the extraordinary choreographer working with the Company.

The new work will grace the Adrienne Arsht Center stage on Thursday, March 1, 2012 for a one-night-only event! Click here for more information.

“If it’s not about the port de bras, then it doesn’t make sense.” -Alexei Ratmansky.

As dancers we speak with our bodies. At times we get so consumed with how our legs and feet are working that we lose sight of the significance of our upper body. Alexei Ratmansky has reminded us of the importance of each gesture and has helped me visualize movement in a completely new way. He offers fresh concepts, things I’ve never really thought of before and it has expanded my creativity and hopefully my dancing!

Symphonic Dances is very balletic but there are so many unique qualities to each movement. Ratmansky is so specific about exactly how your body should move and what your intention should be that it looks and feels like a completely different style of dance.

In an interview with Dance Magazine, Ratmansky says that “every movement could be done in a hundred different ways.” Here are some of the challenging and exciting intricacies of movement he has shared with us! Of course, our artform is visual and it’s tough describing movement with words, but I will do my best…

– Improvise with your coordination. For instance, making the transition of our port de bras slower than the legs; soft with our arms while quick with the legs and finishing the movement with the arms still reaching softly. Or moving our head and shoulders last, after our feet, hips, and body move to create suspense.

-Paint lines in the air with your hands to make movement more interesting!

– Play with the shifting of your weight and when to do it. This is one of my favorite things and also the hardest! An example is in a jump called a pas de chat, where he asked us to begin the jump traveling forward and then midway through travel backwards. Normally the jump would continue moving forward. You also continue reaching forward with your arms as you would normally, another contrast between upper and lower body coordination!

-Think of your legs starting from higher up, from the waist to make your line longer. Also keep your hips croisé more, in other words, never let your body get too flat to the front. This helps to keep a three dimensional quality which is very important on stage.

Keep an eye out for these individual qualities in Symphonic Dances! Hopefully it will be as interesting and exciting to watch as it has been to learn and to dance!